


Lost Time Memory

by C107



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, POV Oma Kokichi, Pre-Game Akamatsu Kaede (mentioned), Sad Oma Kokichi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 15:14:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20623139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/C107/pseuds/C107
Summary: Think, he told himself,of her smile, her laugh, her voice, her habits. Hold on to those memories, if only for a little longer. Like this awesome hairpin that she gave you.Kokichi curled his hand around the object, feeling it press pleasantly into his palm.





	Lost Time Memory

The plastic of the hairpin, held between his index finger and thumb, glittered in the room's light. The musical note, bright as her smile that he would never see again, felt odd. The fact made sense, given that its owner was dead now. However, no matter how it made him feel, he knew it would be best if he kept it. 

He could bury all of the sorrow and bitterness and regret for now because he knew how these things went. Everyone would mourn, but they would eventually forget the things that made her so special. Even he would start forgetting, and that wasn't an idea he was comfortable with.

_ Think_, he told himself, _of her smile, her laugh, her voice, her habits. Hold on to those memories, if only for a little longer. Like this awesome hairpin that she gave you. _

Kokichi curled his hand around the object, feeling it press pleasantly into his palm. 

_ She was idealistic, passionate, and had a bad case of tunnel vision. She held little regard for personal space and was pushy and headstrong. She was chatty when approached about things she liked, chatty in general, and she had a strong sense of justice. She was friendly, and she was **good**_ _. She never deserved this. Most of us didn't. _

He turned in his bed and glanced at the light switch on the wall across from his bed's left side.

_ She was efficient, a huge liar, and when push came to shove, manipulative. _

_ She was a murderer. _

_ A murderer that would definitely scold me for being awake at this hour. _

—

"Kokichi! Found… you…?" 

"Kaede!" He grinned, hopping off of the desk once the girl stepped into the classroom. "I totally got bored of waiting for you, so I decided to make things easier on your part. Good job! It only took you three minutes!"

And thirty-seven seconds, but that wasn't important.

"Aren't you glad you found me, though? Aren't you? Aren't you? _Aren't you_?" He bounded over to her, "I mean, I'd _hate _it if my most precious friend had to spend any more time apart from me than necessary…"

"Kokichi…" She grumbled before letting out a low sigh of exasperation. "Come on. It's time to meet up with the others, and you actually coming along would be better than someone else giving you a rundown of whatever discussion we have. We'll play hide-and-seek or something later."

Kaede held out a hand.

"Let's go, all right?"

His smile dropped, and Kokichi eyed the had before looking up and letting one pair of purple eyes meet another. Slowly, his lips curled into a grin, playful expression returning, and he took Kaede's hand in his own.

"Fine, fine. But that better be a promise!"

She didn't trust him, and rightfully so. That much was clear, and it was fine because he didn't trust her either.

—

The decision to visit her lab had been one made on a whim, and it was only when he arrived that he realized it was too late to turn back.

"Wow, Kaede! You're amazing!"

Her shoulders tensed, _Canon in D _coming to a close, and she turned to face him with a startled frown. 

"Kokichi, don't sneak up on people like that!"

"Hmm…" He examined his nails, "_People_, you say. Okay!" With a giggle, Kokichi put his hands behind his head. "I'll just go sneak up on Kiibo!"

"What? No! Just– Just…" She picked up a small stack of sheet music at her side and moved over to make enough space on the piano bench for him. "Come sit with me, I guess. If you wanted to hang out, you could have just told me, you know."

Walking to the piano bench, the boy let out a gasp of feigned shock. "Ka_ede _Aka_mat_su! You really think you've got me all figured out, don't you? For all you know, I could be planning to murder you right now!" He took a seat and gave her the sternest expression he could manage. "And girls your age should be more cautious around strangers, you know! There are bad people in the world who might want to do bad things to you!"

She held up an upturned palm, a nervous smile making its way onto her lips. "So you did want to hang out, right?"

"Yep! Spending time with my Kaede is one of my favorite pastimes, after all." 

It wasn't a lie. The fact that she knew how to call him out on his bullshit without being rude in return made her company enjoyable, and while her worldviews were strange and her idealism could be annoying at times, she was one of the few people in their mockery of a class who could actually tolerate him.

"But…" he began to sniffle, "S-Shuichi chased me all the way here, a-and he was so angry that it made me f-forget all of the interesting conversation topics I had in mind…!"

"Kokichi," Kaede tilted her head, amusement at the outrageous lie creeping into her features, "it's fine if you don't know what to talk about. We don't have to talk." And then she held up the sheet music she had moved before he sat down and smiled that smile that she gave everyone else she talked to, but it was so warm and kind that he felt like it was just for him.

—

When something changed in her, he noticed.

He figured it was the stress of the killing game that was getting to her, along with the guilt of what she had put them through for the sake of trying to make it to the end of the Death Road of Despair. Those two reasons had to be why her hair was ragged, why her smiles seemed more forced than usual, and why her words of encouragement sounded like they were meant more for her than them. 

He didn’t apologize for his words. They may have come off as harsh, but they were the truth. Leaders weren’t supposed to ignore the well-being of their followers for what they believed to be the best course of action. Not even supreme leaders of evil organizations like him.

Kaede wasn’t_ bad_, but even good people needed to be reprimanded sometimes.

She had started spending more time with Shuichi and less time with him, and there were whispers between them that he could just tell were of secrets, of plans of their own. There were nods of affirmation, nervous smiles, and glances this way and that.

They were up to something. 

If he had just asked what, exactly, perhaps he could have stopped them. 

Perhaps he could have saved her.

—

The motive was taking a toll on her.

She was cracking.

There was something that he had recognized but had never seen in her, of all people, before. Desperation. The desire to come up with a plan soon, lest everything falls apart. It was hard to spot, even for him, who knew her better than any of their other classmates. She was keeping something from Shuichi. She was anxious about that something. 

It was late at night when she gave him the hairpin, the start of the second day that the time limit was in effect. The courtyard was void of the sounds that one tended to hear at that time – the chirps of cicadas, cars passing on a nearby street, the occasional cat or dog. They only had their voices to fill the silence, but they didn’t do much talking. They rested on their backs with their knees drawn up, staring up at the definitely-artificial stars that dotted and illuminated the equally-artificial sky. Kaede hummed _Sonata No.12_, and he let himself close his eyes.

Had it not been for the feeling of dread that grew stronger with each hour, the moment would have been one of total peace.

“...Hey, Kokichi.”

With a slight huff, he opened his eyes. “Geez, Kaede, could you be any ruder? Just when I was about to fall asleep…”

The corners of her lips quirked upwards, and she held out an upturned fist. “You can fall asleep after I give you this, okay?”

Just as he was about to joke about it possibly being a murder weapon, she uncurled her hand, revealing something small that he had to squint to make out. It was an eighth note, a hairpin identical to the one she wore. 

There was a beat, then two, and after a solid ten seconds of him staring at the item, Kaede let out a soft sigh.

“Look, if you don’t want it–” 

He cut her off by snatching it from her with a grin. “Nope. You’ve already offered up your soul, and this hairpin is proof that you made a contract with me. Neeheehee! You’re never getting this back, Kaede!”

His most precious friend had given it to him, so he would treasure it for as long as possible.

—

It was the end for him.

If everything went as intended, no one would have to waste time mourning him. Not that any of them would want to. He knew he was hated. He knew he was the bad guy. He knew that, wherever she was, Kaede was watching him with a sympathetic expression that he didn’t deserve.

The press started coming down, and flashes of music rooms and games of hide-and-seek and navy-colored winter school uniforms filled his mind.

**Author's Note:**

> so, this idea came to me a few nights ago. 
> 
> i guess my brain was like, "oumaede depression? oumaede depression," and this was the result


End file.
